Susi McConnell's Story

NORTHERN HARVEST: TWENTY MICHIGAN WOMEN IN FOOD AND FARMING

http://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/northern-harvest

SUSI MCCONNELL’S STORY

Growing up in a Lithuanian family and neighborhood in Saginaw, Susi loved baking from early childhood, but also all the plants and flowers and vegetables in her parents’ garden. Influenced by the back-to-nature movement of the 60s she became aware of “organic stuff. . . . I became really aware of food and the health benefits . . . and I was very aware of the mind/body thing.”

After working as a pastry chef at Leland Lodge, at SugarLoaf, at Hattie’s, at Thyme Out and at Martha’s, Susi developed celiac and could no longer work with flour. Still very conscious of health as relates to food, she then worked with Angela Macke at Light of Day and got into biodynamic gardening.

"I follow the calendar, and I harvest and plant according to the calendar. . . . When we built our house I planted . . . currant bushes, strawberries, black and red raspberries, apricot trees, apple trees, pear trees, plum trees. So what I had done to myself was to become a slave to my garden and my orchards.”

“I’m happy that I have led the life I have, with a total awareness of my environment. We are all inner-connected, and I wish everyone could feel that way.”

To read more of Susi’s story and the stories of 19 other amazing women in food and farming, you can order Northern Harvest from Amazon or from your favorite independent bookstore.

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